Lithuanian Radio and Television

KARPUŠKA Vytas, Vilnius

At about midnight I returned home with my 10-year old daughter with whom I had been at the television and radio building. I don't live far from the RTV Center - only a few hundred meters. On the way I heard tank fire and ran back again.

The people who were by the side entrance of the building crowded together. They were shooting tanks and tommy guns by the main entrance. The tanks were firing blanks, but they were shooting both blanks and real bullets from the tommy guns, because you could see tracer bullets in the air, and then some bullets flew over our heads (you could hear the whistling). Then soldiers came running from the direction of Konarskio Street. As they ran, they fired their guns into the air, but they were using blanks. Running 15 or 20 meters from the people, they threw explosives into the crowd. We stood with our hands joined and chanted. 3 packets exploded and you couldn't see anything. While the soldiers attacked from the direction of Konarskio Street, someone fired real bullets over our heads (you could hear the bullets humming). Once the smoke cleared away, the soldiers were already inside the building.

The people turned around and chanted again. Then the workers and militia left the building. I ended up right by the entrance and the people calmed down a bit. Some soldiers stood in the doorway - actually, they were older paratroopers who were apparently from a special detachment. At first, they tried to disperse the crowd by firing into the air and attacking - then they calmed down and began to explain that one of their soldiers had been shot and asked us to go take a look at him. Some young guy went with the soldier, and after a little while, he returned. The soldier began to tell the crowd about how terrible those Lithuanians were who had shot their friend. I was furious and told him: „Vy sami jevo ubili!" („You killed him yourselves!") Then he grabbed my arm and hit me in the neck with something. I jumped back and saw a light tank coming towards our crowd. It drove right up to the entrance. The entire time that it was going past the crowd, the paratroopers inside fired their tommy guns. Light tanks and other military vehicles pushed the people against the fence, leaving a few meters in between. Then from the entrance, the soldiers (the ones who had attacked the building) began beating people with their gun butts and kicking them. We moved back, and I dragged some person who had been hit in the head and was unable to walk. Then soldiers hit me in the head with a gun, but I managed to raise my arm to block the blow.

The people didn't disperse from the building, and chanted: “Fascists!"